March 2009

Multiple Streams of Income in Small Towns

March 11, 2009

This past weekend, my husband and I were out for a drive on our local country back roads and passed through several nearby small towns. We were struck by the signage on many stores, where we saw not one business, but listings of multiple services and businesses within the same four walls. Our feeling was [...]

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Coupons, e-Coupons and More

March 10, 2009

Everybody likes to save money, and in today’s economy that’s more true for your customers than ever before. Coupons don’t have to mean you make less money. In fact, you can offer coupons on specific products that aren’t selling and you need to move, or offer them during slower seasons of the year. Coupons can [...]

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Coping With The Modern American Tourist

March 9, 2009

The modern American tourist now fills his experience with pseudo-events. He has come to expect both more strangeness and more familiarity than the world naturally offers. He has come to believe that he can have a lifetime of adventure in two weeks and all the thrills of risking his life without any real risk at [...]

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Tourism Across The Canadian Border

March 8, 2009

Tourism throughout the US is down, but we’re not the only ones. Canadian tourism has seen a decline, too, partly due to the drop in Americans traveling over the border but also because fewer Canadians are traveling. Take a look at how tourism businesses in Canada are being encouraged to plan for tourists who travel [...]

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Rural Business Weekly News – March 7, 2009

March 7, 2009

Here are a few interesting blogs and online articles published this week that relate to Rural Small Business, ending March 7, 2009: I’m struck by the theme I see among so many of this week’s news stories. They seem to all be about – Values Clarification. Our economic worries are prompting many of us to [...]

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Fun Can Mean Business for Rural Business

March 6, 2009

Have you given any thought to how attracting tourists to your area could help your business? The Palm Springs, California Bureau of Tourism did, and decided to market to college students traveling during spring break, using social media. You can take a look here to read four perspectives on what small business owners thought and [...]

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Luring Last Minute Travelers to Rural America

March 5, 2009

It seems that all of us in rural America are going to have to work a little harder this year to attract tourists and other regional visitors to our businesses. Apparently, state tourism and commerce agencies are finding it quite a challenge to get travelers to go out for an occasional night on the town, [...]

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The Digital Dirt Road called Rural Broadband

March 4, 2009

There’s a terrific multimedia report that’s just been completed on the ‘digital divide’ in rural America, providing a glimpse of what life is like in some rural communities without high-speed Internet access. The report has been released by InternetforEveryone.org, which is a broad-based iniitative to connect every American to fast, open and affordable Internet. “More [...]

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Climate Change in Appalachia

March 3, 2009

As some of you may already know, my handmade craft business is very much seasonal and tourist-based, particularly from May through October when travel on the Blue Ridge Parkway is heaviest. For those of us with tourism businesses, nature and our mountain climate can be our best friends ….or our adversaries. We watch our regional [...]

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Rural Sights and Sounds

March 2, 2009

“Not rural sights alone, but rural sounds, Exhilarate the spirit, and restore The tone of languid nature.” William Cowper One of the most widely read English poets of his day, 1731-1800